Photos

Part of the 20,000-strong crowd in Trafalgar Square at the rally to protest against the massacre of 69 unarmed demonstrators at Sharpeville on 21 March. The rally was organised by the Labour Party. Speakers included African National Congress leader Tennyson Makiwane, Labour’s Colonial Affairs spokesperson James Callaghan and Robert Willis from the TUC General Council. In the days following the massacre crowds gathered spontaneously outside South Africa House.

Oliver Tambo and Trevor Huddleston in London in 1960.

In 1961 South Africa was forced to withdraw the Commonwealth because of its racial policies. The AAM held a 72-hour non-stop vigil outside the Commonwealth conference at Marlborough House. It organised a rota of people prominent in British public life, who wore black sashes marking the Sharpeville and Langa massacres. 

 Leaders of the South Africa United Front at the head of a march through central London in March 1961 to demand that South Africa leave the Commonwealth. South Africa was forced to withdraw during the Commonwealth Conference held at Marlborough House. L to r: ANC  Deputy President Oliver Tambo, Fanuel Kozonguizi of the South West Africa National Union, Yusuf Dadoo of the South African Indian Congress, Labour MP Fenner Brockway and Nana Mahomo of the Pan-Africanist Congress. 

Labour MP Barbara Castle speaking at a rally in Trafalgar Square on the first anniversary of the Sharpeville massacre. This was the first of many such events organised by the AAM to commemorate the victims of the Sharpeville shootings, which took place on 21 March 1960.

AAM supporters met in Trafalgar Square on Sunday 28 May 1961 in support of a strike in South Africa in protest against celebrations of South Africa becoming a republic on 31 May. The strike was called by a specially convened National Action Committee, which asked workers to stay at home on 29, 30 and 31 May. There was massive repression in the run-up to the strike and it had only patchy support. The strike was the last major attempt at mass peaceful protest in South Africa until the mid-1980s.

ANC leader Oliver Tambo speaking at a Trafalgar Square rally on Sunday 28 May 1961. The rally was held to support a strike in South Africa in protest against celebrations of South Africa becoming a republic on 31 May. The strike was called by a National Action Committee, which asked workers  to stay at home on 29, 30 and 31 May. There was massive repression in the run-up to the strike and it had only patchy support. The strike was the last major attempt at mass peaceful protest in South Africa until the mid-1980s.

ANC leader Oliver Tambo in Trafalgar Square at an AAM rally on Sunday 28 May 1961. The rally was held to support a strike in South Africa organised in protest against celebrations of South Africa becoming a republic on 31 May. The strike was called by a National Action Committee, who asked workers  to stay at home on 29, 30 and 31 May. There was massive repression in the run-up to the strike and it had only patchy support. The strike was the last major attempt at mass peaceful protest in South Africa until the mid-1980s.